Here’s a million dollar idea: hire a staff that can’t hear a word said. Anjan Manikumar opened a restaurant that employs deaf waiters, and this has never been done in Canada. The idea originated when Manikumar noticed a deaf customer ordering an item by pointing at the menu. Manikumar told CBC News, “I felt he wasn’t getting the service he deserved.”
From The National:
Signs offers customers a chance to learn basic sign language through helpful graphics incorporated in the menu, cheat-sheets placed on tables and wall mounted photographs illustrating signs for common words needed in a restaurant like the names of alcoholic drinks.
“We expect our customers to order using sign language – our menus are designed in such a way that our customers can do that,” says Manikumar. “This will allow our customers to experience the fun of learning something new.”
What better way to include diversity in the workplace while providing a unique dining experience?
I’ll never forget my first encounter with a deaf customer. I was working at a movie theater and two Hispanic kids come up to me and start signing at me, but I had no idea what they were saying. I finally figured out what they needed, and I learned something during that transaction. Society doesn’t do enough to accommodate our deaf community.
Hopefully, restaurants like Signs and people like Manikumar will change that.
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 6, 2014.
I’m speechless.
What’s next, blind servers?
Deaf Joke [I’m a lip reader]: “Dumb Waiters”
This is so cool. We need to continue learning, no matter what age. Learn something, keep the brain going, never stop.
Blind servers? You are disrespectful. As a child of deaf parents you have no idea how hard my parents had to work to get decent jobs that hearing people can get no problem. So please take your disrespectful, arrogant comments somewhere else. This is such a good thing for deaf people. This man that started this business is a good man trying to provide the deaf community with jobs.
It’s not cool to make fun of deaf people on a public forum!! It’s obvious that they are actually smart people who are fluent in a different language…
I bet more ASL students would be happy to go and order from deaf and hard of hearing servers! I feel like this is a great opportunity for students to practice signing and I feel like this will be a fun environment for families and friends who enjoy using sign language at the restaurant!! Now that’s really cool 🙂